Short Description:
Although Lenin and his fellow revolutionaries never called themselves Utopians?believing strictly in a science of revolution, they considered Utopians to be merely dreamers?they... Read more

Product Description

Although Lenin and his fellow revolutionaries never called themselves Utopians?believing strictly in a science of revolution, they considered Utopians to be merely dreamers?they were enormously inspired by the grand humanitarian aims of the French Revolution of 1789. Taking up this French revolutionary agenda and reinforcing it with German philosophy, Russians formed a beautiful vision in which an imaginary theology blended with a premier role for art.

Arc of Utopia offers a fresh look at these German philosophical origins of the Russian Revolution. In the book, Lesley Chamberlain explains how influential German philosophers like Kant, Schiller, and Hegel were dazzled by contemporary events in Paris, and how this led a century later to an explosion of art and philosophy in the Russian streets, with a long-repressed people reinventing liberty, equality, and fraternity in their own cultural image. Chamberlain examines how some of the greatest Russian names of the nineteenth-century?from Alexander Herzen to Mikhail Bakunin, Ivan Turgenev to Fyodor Dostoevsky?defined their visions for Russia in relationship to their views on German enthusiasm for revolutionary France.

With the centenary of the Russian Revolution approaching, Arc of Utopia is an important and timely revisioning of this tumultuous moment in history.

Write a Review

Review this book1000 characters allowed.Would you like to add a title?

Author Biography

Lesley Chamberlain, a novelist and historian of ideas, lived and worked in Communist Russia and has been writing about Russian history and culture for forty years. Her books include Motherland: A Philosophical History of Russia (2004) and The Philosophy Steamer (2006). She lives in London.

Contains more than two hundred recipes interwoven with historical background and notes from the author's experiences traveling through Central and Eastern Europe. This book contains period illustrations and an introduction by the author, which describes how dramatically this region and its food have changed since the end of its isolation in 1989.

Published to tie in with its centenary, Arc of Utopia provides an original account of the origins of the 1917 Russian Revolution. Lesley Chamberlain shows how Russian activists took the French revolutionary ideals, and combined them with German political philosophy, to forge a unique, new vision of liberty, equality and fraternity.

Over 185 recipes offer a cook's tour of a region that stretches from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, with a culinary history, guide to ingredients and over 750 inspiring photographs.

Widely acclaimed for giving [an understanding of the connection between Nietzsche's personal experience and his most famous ideas[ (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times) in her biography of Nietzsche, Nietzsche in Turin, Chamberlain now renders a similar service to readers of Freud. In this book, part biography, part literary criticism, she takes the reader into the mind of Freud, toward a...

Upgrading your order to Express Delivery

Most of our bestselling titles are available for express delivery within the UK, just look out for the Express Delivery on the product page.

There are two speedy upgraded delivery options for mainland UK:

Royal Mail First Class (1-2 working days, except Sundays) just £2.85 per order

Tracked next day courier (next working day) just £4.95 per order

Royal Mail First Class - £2.85 per order:

Royal Mail aims to deliver within 1-2 working days* (Mon-Saturday). Order before 13:00 Mon-Friday (excluding public holidays) and your books should arrive the next day (excludes Sunday & public holidays). This delivery service is not tracked.

Tracked next day courier - £4.95 per order:

Guaranteed, tracked and signed for, next working day* courier delivery. Order before 17:00 Mon-Thursday and receive your book the next day (excludes Saturday, Sunday & public holidays). Our courier delivers between 08:00 and 19:00.

*Northern Ireland, Scottish Highlands and Islands usually receive a 2-3 working day service for First Class. For Tracked Courier, it’s a 2 working day service and you need to order by 15:00. Unfortunately, we don't currently offer Express Delivery outside the UK, Gibraltar, Guernsey or Jersey. All deliveries are subject to cut-off times and public holidays.

‘Ready To Go’ - What is it?

These are essentially books that are in our U.K warehouse, which are ready to be dispatched, pretty swiftly (usually within 1-2 working days!).

The dispatch time frame is factored into the delivery estimate you see on this page.

Don’t forget every single book on our website is available with free worldwide delivery, no minimum spend required.

We use cookies to enhance our site's performance. By continuing to use our website; you're agreeing to our use of cookies and other terms and conditions around data usage.